Airport gas plaza is first of its kind in U.S.
Monday, September 20, 2010 12:00 AM
By Evelyn Lee
A new gas plaza — the first environmentally friendly facility of its kind in the nation — held its grand opening at Newark Liberty International Airport last week.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, pictured rear right, and Airport Plazas President and CEO George Abi Zeid, front right, with other dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Newark Airport Gas Plaza last week. [Courtesy of Airport Plazas LLC]
Newark Airport Gas Plaza, which will be powered by solar energy and include a compressed natural gas station, will provide more than 60 local jobs, and consists of a gas and diesel fueling station, a car wash, a towing facility, and the first 7-Eleven store to open at a U.S. airport.
The plaza, located outside of Newark Liberty’s Terminal A, will allow motorists to purchase gas at the airport for the first time in recent years, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Airport Plazas LLC, the development arm of GAZ Realty, a Jericho, N.Y.-based developer of “super stations” that include automated car washes and convenience stores, signed a 20-year, $7.7 million lease at the site with the authority in May 2008.
Newark Airport Gas Plaza is the first such facility to be built by Airport Plazas, which also is developing sites at John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York, and other U.S. airports.
